looter

Hello ,

I booked a flight with ET from DUB-LAX-DUB knowing that I will earn 10.000+ miles according to the fair i chose in my A3G account.

I needed 11.200 miles till 24th of November in order to maintain my Gold status and I also had the option to buy up to 2.000 miles in case was needed.

The first leg of my trip was delayed for 14hours without any prior notice.
I arrived at the airport in Dublin at 4:30AM!!!! and only at that time i was informed that the flight will depart 8:30PM instead of 6:30AM due to a technical problem with the plane which was never departed from the initial destination in Ethiopia.

I asked for a rebooking and they only rebooked me as A3G member and another passenger traveling in business class.

The problem is that they rebooked me with British-United(through LHR) and not with another Star Alliance member.

For that trip I did not have access to the lounge in Heathrow , I had to pay for the second bag checked in and furthermore i have received no miles for these flights.

The result is that i have received only half miles(received miles only for the 2nd leg (LAX-DUB)) and Ethiopian is not answering to my emails complaining about this issue.

What should I do??

1. Is there any chance to get the miles for the 1st leg? I have stated that if they don't credit the miles i have paid for , they should refund the first leg of my trip.

2. If they won't credit the miles of the first leg(5150 miles) I only have 18 days to earn 6200 miles (i can buy 2000 of them) so i really need your advice about a quick mile run. I'm based in Athens.

Thank you very much for reading my post.

Chris

whimike

Did you make sure your frequent flier number was on your United ticket? If not, call United to have them process the miles for you. If ET rebooked you there is a reasonable chance they put you in a good fare bucket on United which would earn miles with A3. (I don't fly United much any more and never credited to A3, so am not aware of which fare buckets earn what, if ET put you onto a United ticket that doesn't earn miles with A3 then you you are back having to deal with ET.)

mbece

Have you tried requesting original routing credit?

Let's make it clear though: they didn't rip you off. They got you from point A to point B in a timely manner.

Gamecock

A little late for the OP, but whenever you get a flight switched from one carrier to another that is a member of another alliance make sure you ask the original agent to grant you original route credit.

When you get to the other carrier's counter, have them plug your FF number for that alliance into the new flight.

On an award travel and they change your flight/routing? Make sure they enter your FF number on the new segment. I have always earned miles by doing just that.

zrs70

It sounds like the only flight out of alliance was the one that got the OP from DUB to LHR. It was UA the rest of the way.

ORC is the way to proceed.

Kacee

LHR-LAX is farther than DUB-LAX. Don't understand why OP didn't simply give his A3 number to UA. He likely would have earned more miles than on the original itinerary.

Boghopper

I can't imagine Ethiopian is going to manage orc on a third party program. Their back office functions leave much to be desired.

looter

Let me try to clear a bit the situation

The rebooking ticket was with British (DUB-LHR-LAX) and the second leg was operating by American and NOT United as stated in my first post. Sorry for the confusion.

The flights were : BA 831 and BA 1545 which was operated by American.

They ripped me of because :

1. They knew that the initial flight will not depart cause the plane never departed from Ethiopia but they did not inform any passenger.

2. They rebooked me with a flight with another alliance when there was the option to travel with another star alliance partner (LH,LX,SK).

3. I did not have any access to the business lounge which is part of my traveling experience and one reason that i am paying MORE in order to book a flight with star alliance.

4. I did not received the miles i PAID for according to the fair i i chose. If i new that i won't receive any miles for the first leg i would definitely choose another airline-flight.


So the questions are remaining :

1. Is there any hope to get the 5150miles for the flight DUB-LAX?
2. Is there any change to get a cheap mile run and earn around 4000miles till 24th of November for my A3G card in order to maintain my gold status?

Thank you and sorry again for the confusion about the LHR-LAX flight.

Chris

o mikros

Chris,

You may wish to tone down the rhetoric a bit, as although your situation isn't ideal you really don't have a leg to stand on. It is a known fact that getting rebooked on a different alliance can cause problems with ORC, especially when trying to ask ET to give you credit on A3 for a BA/AA itin. They're going to look at your request, frown in confusion at what you're asking, and toss it in the wastebin.

I'm a little confused why you accepted the BA/AA reroute when (by your own statement) there was an alternative *A itinerary.

Probably best to live and learn, which it sounds like you are doing with your final two questions:

1) I would kiss that hope goodbye.
2) You're going to have a tough time on this short notice finding 4k miles on the cheap. Still, A3 had some decently priced domestic r/t that you might be able to use with their flat mileage accrual (like to Ioannina, the islands, other destinations that are in shoulder season now). How much are you willing to spend? And is *G really worth that much to you?

Y.G. Otan milame yia times, i swsti orthographia einai "fare" kai oxi "fair" pou shmainei panigyri i glendi.

Kiwi Flyer

You should ask your FFP for "original routing credit" giving details of your original routing and re-routing without any rhetoric.

If you have a Oneworld FFP you might also request credit for the BA flight, however the best time to do this was when when you where being checked in for that flight,

rapidex

As you were leaving the EU you should also claim 600 Euro under EU261/2004.

If Ethiopian wish to fly DUB-LAX they must pay the price when it goes wrong.

SK AAR

A3 will refuse ORC as there is no chance of getting payment from ETH for flights the OP never made. Nor will credit for the BA/AA flights be possible as they are Oneworld flights. The only chance is to complain/write to ETH requesting a credit/ORC to A3 - good luck with that!

In hindsight, the OP should never have accepted the rebooking (despite that it was most likely the best possible solution in terms of connections, flight times etc, which many of us would have been happy with, e.g. AA 77W is great!) or at least insisted that an acceptable solution about miles/points was found before the new itinerary was accepted.

I second the comments about rhetoric; that kind of language will not get you nowhere!

Kiwi Flyer

I (and many others) have received original routing credit in similar circumstances. It is not that unusual, and so all FFPs have processes to deal with it. You have paid for these miles in your fare.

You need to deal with the FFP not the airline you had booked, because only the FFP can credit you with miles. They will confirm with the airline the involuntary reroute.

1353513636

Per EU 261/2004 , you are entitled to 600 Euros. Take it and book a weekender to San Francisco from ARN/OSL/CPH on SAS. That shouldn't cost you much more than 600 Euros in this season and will get you all the miles you need for A3*G.

Mwenenzi

You were not ripped off.
You paid for a flight from DUB-LAX-DUB. They got you there, all be it with a delay. Delays are not that unusual. Getting you to the destination is the purpose of travel. Frequent flyer miles are secondary.